Quickie Umbrella Lighting Tip

This portrait, by **bowl_rider**, is a good example of how a little change in light placement can make a big difference in the final look of a photo.

Most of the time (when your subject is not wearing glasses ) you will be placing the main light on the side of the camera that corresponds with the direction the subject is facing.

The natural tendency is to place the umbrella directly in front of the subject, i.e., to have the person looking right at it.

For more of a sculpted, three-dimensional effect, I like to move the umbrella just a little more to the back, as in this example. It is a subjective choice, but it can really enhance the shot and give it a "look" you might not expect.

The benefits:

1. The "camera-side" eye ends up in a very interesting little triangle of light.

2. If you are also trying to light the background with your umbrella, it is better positioned to do so in an interesting way. This also lends itself to better separation on the shadow side of the subject's head.

3. The "camera-side ear" is not going to be catching any light. This helps to keep it from popping out of the shadow side, as if to scream, "Hey! Lookit me! I'm an ear!"

This "behind the face" lighting is especially effective on profiles. But you have to either plan to have large shadow areas or fill the shadow side with another light, a reflector or balanced ambient.

In general, if you are just using one flash you will have to pay close attention to how you balance the ambient, as that will be lighting (or not lighting) the shadow side of your subject.

But remember, just by playing with your shutter speeds during the shoot, you will be able to quickly get a range of looks from your photo with no adjustment of the flash.

If that last bit is at all confusing, see the "balanced ambient" link above.

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Final Four Starting Five

What were the odds? In a rematch of the NCAA football title game, the University of Florida faces off against Ohio State tonight to try to claim their second-straight hoops title.

Which means it is also time to nominate the starting five basketball photos from this site in our little lighting challenge with Sportsshooter. As previously mentioned, I am throwing in a photo of my own and choosing four more submitted by the readers.

We were into three digits on the total photos submitted. So obviously, choosing just four was not an easy task. There were many, many nice shots. And some very cool concepts, too.

I hope everyone who tried the exercise was able to learn something from seeing what others did when given the same, simple assignment. For Strobist and Sportsshooter readers alike, that was the main idea.

I also hope that my juvenile trash talking got a few more of you off of your duffs and into the pool - from both sites.

That said, here are the Strobist starters, and why they were chosen. I am sure you would have chosen different photos. These choices are just one person's opinion. And you know what they say about opinions...

(Click on the pics for bigger versions.)


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Because Mike Zamora's photo surprised me in several ways.

He floated the ball on a bar stool and then shot straight down. Then he fired a flash into the bottom of the stool and used it as a light modifier. The spaghetti-box snoot up top was a bonus. Setup shot is here.

Please note that I was unable to access this photo directly in Flickr, so I had to upload it through Blogger and point to the Flickr version. Blogger steps on the color saturation a bit. The (click-through) Flickr version is more accurate.


Because Basswork figured out how to brand a basketball with light. This was not easy, as this setup shot shows. Just think of the possibilites this technique opens up.


Because I am a total slut for dark field lighting, and the gazillion other techniques I am learning about in the new Light, Science and Magic book. I am planning a review shortly, but for right now I am savoring the book.

And because rawcapture's use of the technique rendered the ball as a beautiful, three-dimensional object. See how he did it here and here.

(Gotta love the academically inspirational John Belushi poster in the back of the first setup shot.)


Because ColbyJoe's execution was classic, understated and darn-near flawless.

(This is another photo I was unable to access directly, so I went through Blogger's somewhat de-saturating upload process. Click through on the photo for the best version.)


Because I said I would enter one of my own, even though I was humbled by many of the reader entries. Click on the pic for some basic setup notes and how it was done.

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To see the other entries from Strobist readers, click here. To see URL's to the photos that, for some reason, were not reflected in the strobistfinalfour search string, see the comments at the bottom of this post.

As a side note, from the beginning I decided that I would have some skin in this game. Just for pride, if nothing else. But if I were not taking up one of the five slots by design, the objective picture editor (and lighthing guy) in me would have gone with this photo. IDreamInIR got an amazing amount of mileage out of a single SB-600.

Good luck to Florida, and good luck to Ohio State. May the best team win.

And thanks to the Strobist and Sportsshooter readers who picked up the ball and ran with it.

UPDATE:

Just got some links from Sportsshooter from some of the guys who did basketball shots on their site. Below are links to their individual galleries. If you are a Sportsshooter shooter and would like to share your stuff with everyone, please feel free to your photos in the comments section of this post. I will try to moderate them into publication quickly.

Please note that the page should be publicly accessible, i.e., not protected by logon and/or password.

Thanks!

SPORTSHOOTER PIX:

:: Mike Ullery ::
:: Mark Deckard ::
:: David Manning :: (Very cool macro w/water drops.)
:: Eric Wright :: (Like solar system shots...)

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Be Glad You are Watching it on TV

Sportsshooter has an enlightening article by Sports Illustrated picture editor Porter Binks on all of the rules and regs surrounding shooting, remotes and strobes at the NCAA finals.

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Look For - And Light - The Details

I have said it before, and I will say it again: Always look for details when shooting your assignments. Beyond that, a little light goes a long way in cleaning those details up.

Last week I had an assignment to shoot these ladies who make Rosary beads (by the tens of thousands) to send to the troops deployed overseas. Visually, we are talking 20-25 people sitting around in a room stringing beads.

Not terrible, but not a lot of variety, either.

In a situation like this, I will typically set up my flash immediately in an umbrella and stick it in a corner somewhere. That way it'll be ready to grab and use when I need it.

After shooting a few different angles of the ladies working with the beads, I wanted to grab a detail shot. This is when having the flash preset in an umbrella really helps.

As usual, no rocket science here. The shoot-through umbrella becomes a huge light source when positioned above and behind the strand of Rosary beads that I used as a detail. They were already sitting on the table. Didn't move them or anything.

The light from the umbrella becomes a huge specular highlight reflected in the black cross, which provides a nice tonal contrast to the Jesus figure depicted on it. And the beads reflect the large highlight, which reveals their shape in the photo.

As an added bennie, I can now work at f/16 - a crucial difference, compared to f/2.8 when working in the macro range.

As you can see here, both the quality of light and the depth of field suffer when the same shot is taken without the off-camera flash.

This shot will not win any awards, no matter which way it is shot. But lit, it gives the designer a strong, graphic detail with which to work. In a pinch, they might even design the page around the lit detail and use a shot of the ladies working as the smaller photo.

It's important to remember that the payoff to using light consistently is that the it raises your quality level throughout the entire range of the pictures that you are called upon to produce. Which is a good thing.

NEXT: Spring Arts Guide

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How They Make Your Lenses

Wow. I have to say, after watching this, that I am surprised lenses do not cost even more than they do.

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It's in Our Teams' Hands Now

(Photo by Phillip Moore.)

As the semifinal games begin, a few things to mention:

First, the basketball photos are really starting to come in. If yours does not show up in the above search (which will happen for many new members) please leave a URL that points to your photo's Flickr page in the comments section for this post. We do not want to miss you.

Second, remember that you have until Monday, noon (EST) to submit your photo, (either via Flickr w/strobistfinalfour tag or a URL that points to your individual photo's page on Flickr.)

Third, many thanks to the Sportsshooter photogs who have answered the challenge. We cannot wait to see your stuff. I hope my trash-talking bait was sufficient to bring many of you to the party.

And finally, to all people who still have some skin in the game, either via alma mater, favorite school or brackets in the office pool, good luck this weekend and Monday.

Monday afternoon, I will post the "Starting Five" from this site. As previously mentioned, I will submit a photo and choose four others. (I am sticking to this even though I am not sure that my effort would legitimately make the top five.)

I am sure Brad or Grover will post the link to their stuff over on Sportsshooter, and I will point to it. Hopefully, we will all pick up some new lighting tricks. I know I already have.

These of course will be quickly forgotten due to the effects of the pre-final-game Happy Hours.

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Elinchrom Skyport Review

If you are a Pocket Wizard/Skyport fence-sitter, BlewBMX.com has posted a review that should help you choose. Or, maybe plunge you even further into indecision.

From what I see, the Skyports will not knock off the PW's, but seem to be a very good gap filler between the Gold Standard PW's and the Ghetto Infinity remotes.

(Thanks to BlewBMX for the timely info.)

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